People like Dubravka Ugrešić

Dubravka Ugrešić (Croatian pronunciation: [dûbraːʋka ûgreʃit͡ɕ]; born 27 March 1949) is a Yugoslav and later Croatian writer. A graduate of University of Zagreb, she has been based in Amsterdam since 1996 and refuses to identify as a Croatian writer.

Ugrešić was born on 27 March 1949 in Kutina, Yugoslavia (now Croatia). Her mother was an ethnic Bulgarian from Varna. She majored in comparative literature and Russian language at the University of Zagreb's Faculty of Arts, pursuing parallel careers as a scholar and as a writer. After graduation, she continued to work at the university, at the Institute for Theory of Literature. In 1993, she left Croatia for political reasons. She has spent time teaching at European and American universities, including UNC-Chapel Hill, UCLA, Harvard University, Wesleyan University, and Columbia University. She is based in Amsterdam where she is a freelance writer and contributor to several American and European literary magazines and newspapers.